2016 Candidate Profile: Gov. George Pataki

George Pataki served as governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. A Republican, he also spent a decade in the New York State Legislature and served as mayor of the town of Peekskill, N.Y. Prior to entering politics, Pataki worked as a lawyer.

Pataki flirted with previous runs for the presidency in 2008 and 2012, and has pitched himself as a moderate Republican with a track record of winning elections in left-leaning New York.

Pataki declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination for president on May 28th, 2015.

Related Content

Former New York Governor George Pataki announced his bid for president this morning at a rally in Exeter. The Exeter town hall was sweltering and packed with perhaps as many New Yorkers as Granite Staters.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is an independent politician who, on April 30th, made an official announcement of his candidacy for the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Sanders, a self-described "Democratic Socialist," is a native of Brooklyn, New York.

Carly Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and as such, was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company. On May 4, 2015, she announced her candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

Fiorina received her undergraduate degree from Stanford, and earned business degrees from MIT and the University of Maryland. After surviving breast cancer (Fiorina was diagnosed and treated in 2009), she ran for U.S. Senate in 2010, and was defeated by incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer.

Republican Edward "Ted" Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012. He is the first Cuban-American to serve in that role for the state of Texas. Cruz announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential primary on March 23, 2015. (You can watch the video of his announcement at the bottom of the page.)

Republican Marco Rubio is the junior U.S. Senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. Prior to holding national office, he served as speaker in the Florida House of Representatives from 2007-2009. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and a native of Miami. He attended the University of Miami School of Law.

Rubio announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race on April 13th, 2015. (You can watch video of his announcement speech below.)